Medical negligence is an issue that no individual requiring healthcare services wants to deal with. When you go to the doctor, you want to benefit from medical care and attention so that the health issue you’re dealing with can be resolved, and you can go back to living your life without being concerned for your safety and well-being. However, in some cases, mistakes or even neglect can occur, and their impact can be quite far-reaching. In some cases, it ends up reflecting not just on the professional responsible for the malpractice but on the entire practice.
The effects of this scenario can be incredibly far-reaching, and their repercussions are sometimes severe. Patients can deal with delayed diagnoses, or their health might become even worse as a result of being administered the wrong treatment. With that in mind, let’s delve into some of the consequences associated with medical negligence, as well as what the path to recovery actually entails.
What is clinical negligence?
If you’ve experienced trouble as a result of a medical treatment recently, you might be asking yourself What Qualifies as Medical Negligence? Having a good grasp on what exactly constitutes medical negligence will determine whether or not that is what has happened to you and, as a result, if it would be worth pursuing the case in a legal framework. The concept of medical malpractice refers to situations in which healthcare professionals fall short when it comes to providing the standard of care they should be able to deliver. Negligence can arise from many different reasons, including misdiagnosis, inadequate health management, or being prescribed the wrong treatment.
But in order to prove that malpractice has, in fact occurred, you need to be able to prove that it falls within certain criteria:
- It must be proven that the treatment you received was not consistent with the standard treatment recognised by the profession and practice.
- The patient must have suffered some form of injury as a result of the negligence, as in the absence of health damage, an act of negligence cannot be considered malpractice.
- In order to qualify as malpractice, it must be proven that the injury caused significant pain, hardship, loss of earnings, lifelong disability, or financial troubles.
In the United Kingdom, between 2019/20, the NHS received 11,682 medical negligence reports and claims, an increase of nearly 10% compared to the previous year, but the total value recorded under the Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts lowered to £8.3 billion, a noticeable decrease compared to the previous value of £8.8 billion.
The effects
The repercussions of clinical negligence are far-reaching and can also extend beyond the physical injuries. The psychological toll can be very challenging to deal with, especially if the patient sustained very serious damage as a result. You may feel unwilling to trust a healthcare provider ever again out of fear of what has happened, which could lead to additional health issues occurring in the future, remaining undiagnosed and wreaking havoc on your well-being. Anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and depression frequently occur in patients who were harmed by medical negligence, and undoing the damage will take time and careful work with a counsellor.
On top of that, the physical damage is also likely to be a considerable struggle. For instance, misdiagnosis can be either mild or result in potentially life-threatening consequences. If head trauma is not diagnosed and treated promptly just because the patient doesn’t appear to be doing poorly, for instance, permanent brain damage can occur. A serious illness being misdiagnosed and interpreted as something commonplace can also delay treatment, meaning that by the time the true cause is discovered, the patient would have become significantly ill, and the treatment might be costlier and the side effects more intense.
The loss of trust
When people require a service, they expect the results to be beneficial. And when these expectations don’t ultimately materialise the bond of trust becomes void in the eye of the patients. People lose trust in the healthcare systems as a result, because they start to believe that the expertise of medical professionals is not what it is made out to be, and that the doctors are not well-equipped to guide them through their health journey.
The fear of experiencing the same thing in the future can be almost impossible to overcome in some cases, as doubt will remain an issue. Some patients may even feel that they’re doing more harm than good and risking their own well-being if they go to the doctor, and prefer to stay away from hospitals and clinics. This can do quite a lot of harm as well, as people end up self-medicating in order to alleviate their symptoms, which can cause a lot of damage to the body’s organs, particularly the heart and the stomach.
Self-medicating can also lead to the development of unhealthy coping mechanisms and substance addiction. The strain can reverberate through communities and families as well since people often don’t deal with the fallout of medical negligence on their own. Caregivers find themselves dealing with guilt or inadequacy if they feel that they’re not up to the task. If you yourself acted as a caregiver for another family member, becoming injured and having your health impacted will most likely make you unable to continue, a scenario that causes considerable stress and mental anguish.
The bottom line
To sum up, clinical negligence is a complex and challenging situation with wide-reading ramifications. As such, the already difficult situation can become even more of a hassle to manage. If you’ve been impacted by medical negligence, you should know that healing is possible. Seeking a legal recourse will secure the amount of compensation that you deserve, supporting your recovery and assisting you throughout the process.
Preventing the occurrence of medical negligence will require comprehensive methods and a multi-faceted approach that includes ongoing training and education. Creating a culture of transparency and open communication will also minimise the incidence of errors and mitigate risks.
